[% setvar title Meanwhile, in perl6-language %]
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    <h3>This file is part of the Perl 6 Archive</h3>
    <p>To see what is currently happening visit <a href="http://www.perl6.org/">http://www.perl6.org/</a></p>
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<a name='The Perl 6 Summary for the week ending 2004-05-09'></a><h2>The Perl 6 Summary for the week ending 2004-05-09</h2>
<p>Ooh look. Stuff's been happening in perl6-internals again. Will wonders
never cease?</p>
<a name='Building NCI by default'></a><h2>Building NCI by default</h2>
<p>Bernhard Schmalhofer posted a patch to turn on building <b><i>libnci.so</i></b> by
default so that the tests in <b><i>t/pmc/nci.t</i></b> would get run on more
builds by default. Leo Tötsch applied them and sat back to see what
broke. He, Nicholas Clark and Andrew Dougherty went on to have a
discussion about when dynamic loading may not be available (Did you
know that Crays don't do dynamic loading?) or desirable.</p>
<p>Various OSes broke, and appropriate patches were created and
applied.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=rt-3.0.9-29257-86491.15.10015674031@perl.org' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='MMD and bytecode implementations'></a><h2>MMD and bytecode implementations</h2>
<p>There was some debate on how register saving should be handled when
doing multi method dispatch to operators that end up with an
implementation in bytecode. I was involved in this discussion and I'm
still busy arguing my corner. So, rather than abuse this particular
soapbox with a partial (as in 'not impartial') summary, I'm just going
to point you at the root message of the thread.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=a06100502bcb7f7775cfc@' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a>[10.0.1.3]</p>
<a name='Embedding and the stack'></a><h2>Embedding and the stack</h2>
<p>Dan ruled on PMCs that live outside parrot, and on calling into parrot
from the outside. Brent Royal-Gordon implemented a 'proof of concept'
that got applied pretty quickly. Nicholas Clark wasn't entirely
convinced that everything in the garden was lovely, but we're currently
in 'suck it and see' mode.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=a06100501bcbc0a646eeb@' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a>[10.0.1.3]</p>
<a name='The ongoing saga of cygwin'></a><h2>The ongoing saga of cygwin</h2>
<p>Cygwin had all sorts of problems this week, with ICU, with NCI and (no
surprise really) garbage collection. Joshua Gatcomb acted as Leo's eyes
and hands during an extended bug hunt which ended with all tests
passing and parrot running pleasingly quickly on the cygwin platform.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=a06100503bcbc137c9093@' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a>[10.0.1.3]</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=3hdzmvl8344r$.1hkuxsnjge3es.dlg@40tude.net' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040504135510.85073.qmail@web60801.mail.yahoo.com' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040506162006.90350.qmail@web60806.mail.yahoo.com' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040507160212.6232.qmail@web60802.mail.yahoo.com' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040507161245.99916.qmail@web60810.mail.yahoo.com' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='NCI Nested struct access broken'></a><h2>NCI Nested struct access broken</h2>
<p>Leo on chromatic tracked down a bug with accessing nested structs when
using the Native Call Interface.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=rt-3.0.9-29333-86684.19.0522834728947@perl.org' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='Async IO notes'></a><h2>Async IO notes</h2>
<p>Dan dropped a few notes on how Parrot's asynchronous IO was going to
work.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=a06100502bcbd6e4574bc@' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a>[172.24.18.98]</p>
<a name='The linker TODO'></a><h2>The linker TODO</h2>
<p>In another of his TODO tasks for the interested, Dan asked for someone
to tidy up the parrot link stages so that the various parrot libraries
were rather less promiscuous about exporting symbols. The problem's not
solved yet, but it's being worked on.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=a06100500bcbd3cf3e5d8@' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a>[10.0.1.3]</p>
<a name='Towards a final events design'></a><h2>Towards a final events design</h2>
<p>Dan's working on the design Parrot's event and IO system and he had a
question about dealing with external events. Discussion ensued. Some of
it related to Dan's question.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=a06100501bcbd45b4f30c@' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a>[10.0.1.3]</p>
<a name='Return Continuations'></a><h2>Return Continuations</h2>
<p>Dan was about to implement the previously discussed return continuation
register, but Leo argued that it should be done gradually and, I think,
carried the day.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=a06100502bcbec5bb0498@' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a>[172.24.18.98]</p>
<a name='NCI sub call syntax in PIR'></a><h2>NCI sub call syntax in PIR</h2>
<p>Leo's rejigged IMCC so that making an NCI call is a little easier.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=4099E558.7090302@toetsch.at' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='Documentation on writing PMCs'></a><h2>Documentation on writing PMCs</h2>
<p>Nicholas Clark asked after documentation on how to write a PMC. It
turns out there isn't any in the distribution, but Mike Scott has some
useful stuff on his Wiki. It seems that Real Men use the
source. Hopefully this will change eventually (soon?).</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040507160319.GF7052@plum.flirble.org' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<p><a href='http://www.vendian.org/parrot/wiki/bin/view.cgi/Main/ParrotDiagramsPMC' target='_blank'>www.vendian.org</a></p>
<a name='Ponie's performing pants'></a><h2>Ponie's performing pants</h2>
<p>Nicholas Clark reported that, now that ponie is using PMCs to handle
Perl scalars, Ponie's performance is now 'pants'. It turned out to be a
problem with Garbage Collection. The initial fix gave a massive
performance increase, but there are still issues to address.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040507161600.GM7078@plum.flirble.org' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='Meanwhile, in perl6-language'></a><h1>Meanwhile, in perl6-language</h1>
<a name='Returning from rules'></a><h2>Returning from rules</h2>
<p>Larry ruled on Luke Palmer's rule return proposal. Essentially the
proposal as it stood was rejected in favour of a possible new
<code>succeed</code> keyword/macro.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040419070629.GA32185' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a>%luke@luqui.org</p>
<a name='Required named parameters never go away do they?'></a><h2>Required named parameters never go away do they?</h2>
<p>Dov Wasserman chimed in on the subject of required named
parameters. Larry was unconvinced by his proposal.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040504085308.43740.qmail@onion.perl.org' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='Specifying class interfaces with AUTOMETH'></a><h2>Specifying class interfaces with <code>AUTOMETH</code></h2>
<p>Austin Hastings had some questions about <code>AUTOMETH</code> and
<code>AUTOMETHDEF</code>. It appears from Larry's answers that Austin had the
wrong end of that particular stick.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=ICELKKFHGNOHCNCCCBKFEEEGCMAA.Austin_Hastings@Yahoo.com' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='Named parameters vs. slurpy hash syntax'></a><h2>Named parameters vs. slurpy hash syntax</h2>
<p>Dov Wasserman worries that named parameters and slurpy hash arguments
don't get on very well. Others disagreed.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20040506023628.60840.qmail@onion.perl.org' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='is rw trait's effect on signature'></a><h2><code>is rw</code> trait's effect on signature</h2>
<p>Aaron Sherman pointed to an issue with the <code>is rw</code> trait and wondered
if he was making a fool of himself. For some reason the responses
turned into a discussion of the difference between 'isa' and 'does'
relationships. In response to Aaron's question, Dan implied that Aaron
was expecting rather too much to happen at compile time.</p>
<p><a href='http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1083865176.4985.88.camel@pps' target='_blank'>groups.google.com</a></p>
<a name='Apologies, Announcements, Acknowledgements'></a><h1>Apologies, Announcements, Acknowledgements</h1>
<p>If you find these summaries useful or enjoyable, please consider
contributing to the Perl Foundation to help support the development of
Perl. You might also like to send me feedback at
mailto:<a href='mailto:pdcawley@bofh.org.uk'>pdcawley@bofh.org.uk</a></p>
<p><a href='http://donate.perl-foundation.org/' target='_blank'>donate.perl-foundation.org</a> -- The Perl Foundation</p>
<p><a href='http://dev.perl.org/perl6/' target='_blank'>dev.perl.org</a> -- Perl 6 Development site</p>
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